This is something that has always amused me, for about as long as I can remember. I know in places outside of the United States, matters of sexuality are handled somewhat different, but in general, it seems the world operates like this: You want to shoot up the place? Sure, but no naked people! You want to slit somebody's throat? Okay, but no naked people! You want to watch two people punch each other to death? Okay, but no naked people! I remember in school, we'd be allowed to watch a film, if it didn't have anything sexual to it. Somebody could be stabbed or shot, and that was fine, even for young minds. But show somebody even suggesting expressing sexuality, then that film couldn't be shown. I think the most hypocritical situation I've personally been in, was when I was attending my church's youth group (I was a little hellion, oh boy~!) for an event. We were paired off with somebody else and one adult, where we stayed in a hotel room, the night before this event. The adult assigned to me and another fellow were watching television, until that other fellow started channel surfing. He stops on Saving Private Ryan, and our adult says: "This is okay, but the moment any nudity comes on, it's going off!" Well, we watched Saving Private Ryan until he fell asleep, and we slipped out of the hotel room. That sneaking out was a lot more fun than the church event we went to, but I digress. Does anybody else find it sad/hilarious how society is tolerant of violence, but seems to go up in arms about anything sexual?
Yeah, it's kind of odd, but I understand it, I think. Most people just feel less comfortable with the awkwardness of watching that with someone... From my limited time in The Netherlands and Belgium, sexual themes are a lot much more common (in my experience, I could be wrong). I remember the very first Dutch commercial I saw, and it had a woman who was literally naked (showed waist-up). If I remember correctly it had something to do with toothpaste or toothbrushes! EDIT: My host family thought nothing of the commercial!
This is something that has always amused me about America - its obsession with no nudity (and also beeping swearwords). Edit: funny you mention the Netherlands, Onyx. It's indeed a lot more common to show some nudity on tv shows.
In that situation, sure, I understand it too. But even without supervision, many parents are tolerant of their child watching/playing something violent, but if they hear about anything sexual, it suddenly becomes an issue. Growing up, I remember many kids getting in trouble for looking at porn. But these same kids were watching violent films, and that was fine. Sometimes, many violent films have moments of nudity -- usually right before somebody is killed. You could argue many films like that, are associating sexual excitement with violence, but that's potentially opening up another conversation... Interesting commercial, there, LOL.
I just noticed Kaiser changed her avatar! This one looks nice! @Topic: Ya, i hate that. Sex is something almost everyone enjoy, it is something natural and necessary for many, many reasons. However, society makes it look like worse than violence. It makes no sense!
My mother went to boarding school in France and she tells this story about how every week on a Sunday they had to sit in a room and watch the old black and white Zorro tv series. They weren't allowed to watch anything else in case it had so much as kissing in it! Supposedly there must have been a lot of sword fighting although nothing like the levels of violence seen nowadays. This was in the 60s. My younger brothers were allowed to play Grand Theft Auto from the age of about 3. Admittedly it was sort of funny because one of them never targeted pedestrians but was just obsessed with stealing police cars every single time he played. However this same brother, I discovered, by the age of nearly 6 did not know the anatomical difference between boys and girls until I informed him we were built differently, thinking this was an important thing for him to understand about his own body esp so he wouldn't panic if he ever saw a girl at the swimming pool or whatever. Even after this my father and stepmother refused to properly explain it to him and instead told him confusing silly names for girl parts that were very misleading. I can never understand the logic behind 'morality' for its own sake taking priority over morality with good reason. It's one of these things were people are raised and cultured to think a certain way eg nudity is bad because it's linked with sex, sex is considered dirty, swearing is bad manners etc. But violence and hatred is ok because that was considered the norm. Ask someone to explain logic behind it, and they can't come up with much more than 'it's just inappropriate.' Or some variation. I've encountered parents who were totally naive to the point of bizarre about the fact that anyone under the age of 18 knew about sex or swearwords, yet when it came to letting their own children watch violence or use racist language they actively encouraged it (this is in the UK btw).
I always thought it was bullshit. I can understand hiding graphic sex from kids....but naked bodies?! Naked bodies are worse than violence and gore? I think about it this way. Kids see non-sexual nudity on a daily basis. Whether It's their own bodies, their family members changing or walking around or getting to bathe with mommy or daddy at a young age. There's nothing harmful about genitals or showing them to kids, and hiding them just causes bodily shame and sexual disorders when they grow up. Hell, societies that celebrate nudity as a natural thing even have lower rates of sexual crimes and teen pregnancies. That's how the human mind works; if you hide something it becomes a rare forbidden fruit which is why america will sexualize the human body more when they see it, compare to some of my European friends who have drawn lots of naked pictures and never saw them as sexual, just art. Even actual sex I wouldn't mind showing to my kids as much as violence (Er....depends on how bad the violence is) because It's still a natural thing that almost everyone will experience once. But almost no one will experience the level of violence we see in the media. Sure, I might see some fist fights and people getting shot on a daily basis, but I never come across people having their heads and guts ripped out when I'm browsing news or taking a walk outside. There's nothing WRONG with enjoying that stuff in the media, but to say it's safer or more natural for people to see is shit backwards logic.
Because it's more useful to encourage people to accept violence and shame sexuality? I dunno. It's something that's amused me as well. I actually thought about making a thread on this last year, because I feel confused when trying to understand it. My brain just hurts. I dare say I'm almost hyperaware of violence and I detest pointless violence. I'll just say this; when I was a kid, nobody questioned my interest in history.
It's a little weird to me. I'm all for sexuality being talked about and all that. I'm trying to break the mold myself. I do see that people are 'embarrased' by the sexuality. That's my observation though.
Hey! This is a totally serious topic. Nobody wants to hear a clever response, because it Mayflower offend somebody! LOL. I <3!
I totally agree with this. I truly think that making sexuality and the human body into something awful and forbidden is harmful. I was terribly amused by how people were actually disgusted and offended by Tina Turner's nip slip at the Super Bowl. Holy shit! A breast! Think of the children! One of my teachers was so upset because her son was watching, even though she thought Goodfellas was perfectly acceptable viewing for him.
Seriously, I think that's a big part of the reason for the societal reticence toward sexuality in the US. :lol: Regarding your church and watching Saving Private Ryan, I was always told (by friends - I was lucky enough not to be religiously indoctrinated) that they could watch televised violence "because there was violence in the Bible." :rolle:
I work at an arcade and part of my job is setting up Xbox games on our tvs. We have to ask parental permission before setting up any M rated game for kids, and there have been loads of times parents are fine with any amount of violence and gore....but once there's sexual themes it's a no go for them.
Can't we just agree that mass censorship is bad and parents should be the arbiters of what their kids can watch? Because aside from the really sick stuff in the dirty corners of the internet, almost anything becomes okay with parental guidance.
Well I think this thread was talking about said parental figures arbitrarily saying that sex is bad but violence is ok. Obviously there has to be ratings for things like movies, games, and tv so parents know before they buy it or put it on that A) it might not be appropriate for their kids and B) why exactly it isn't. Hell as long as they aren't forbidding people from making content I would like if they had warnings for certain specific triggers, like rape scenes or gun shots. A person with ptsd might be fine with violence or sexual themes but not straight up reinactments of their trauma
